There’s life after work.
If you wake up at seven, moving a summer sunrise from five to six needn’t cost you an hour outdoors. Moving sunset from eight to nine can give you one. That’s the case for seasonal clock changes, taken an hour further.
What should we do
with the clocks?
There are three familiar answers: keep the spring and fall clock changes, stay on standard time all year, or make daylight saving time permanent. The Sunshine Protection Act proposes the last option.
Permanent standard time brings summer sunsets an hour earlier than they are now. Permanent daylight saving time pushes winter sunrises an hour later. We tried year-round DST in 1974. The dark winter mornings were unpopular, and Congress brought standard time back that October.
The clock change is the least-bad choice of the three. Summer gets later sunsets; winter keeps earlier sunrises. Changing the clocks is a nuisance, but fixing them in one position means living with the wrong compromise for months.
One step forward is good.
Two would be better.
In spring, go forward an hour. In May, go forward another. Come September, give one back; in November, return to standard time.
Call it double daylight saving time. Standard time in winter, ordinary DST in spring and fall, and two hours ahead in summer—when the days are long enough to put another hour of light after work.
March+1 hour
May+1 hour
September−1 hour
November−1 hour
Two steps forward. Two back. Four one-hour changes. ↓
Where the daylight goes.
Loading the map…
Sun stays up or down
San Francisco · Sunset 9:34 p.m. · Civil dusk 10:06 p.m.
Sunset isn’t lights out.
The Sun disappears before the light does. Civil twilight is the bright part after sunset—and before sunrise. Its length changes with the season and latitude.
Pick a place on the map to see when the Sun sets and when civil twilight ends.
Arizona and Hawaii
can sit this one out.
Hawaii has a smaller seasonal swing in daylight. In Arizona’s summer heat, earlier sunsets have their appeal. More evening sunshine isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time.
Keep the existing opt-out. Hawaii, most of Arizona, and the territories stay on standard time. Places that already use DST—including the Navajo Nation—follow the new schedule.
Give summer another hour.
Congress is already arguing about the clocks.
There’s another option.